Diana Nyad

In 2013, at the age of sixty-four, Diana Nyad became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage, swimming 110.86 miles in fifty-three hours from Havana to Key West. In the 1970s, she became known as the world’s greatest long distance swimmer with her open-water achievements, including a record-breaking swim around Manhattan. 

She is the author of the bestselling memoir, Find a Way, and three other books; is a national fitness icon, a talented linguist, the co-founder of EverWalk — and one of today’s most powerful and engaging public speakers. She performed her off-Broadway show, The Swimmer, at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City in 2019. A Netflix movie, NYAD, based on Diana’s memoir, is currently enjoying global acclaim.